Editorially speaking...
For quite some time now it has been apparent to me that the internet address, www.CowichanChronicles.com, is too geocentric. The digital world is just that—global.
For three years, this great photo of the Kinsol Trestle by ToadHollow Photography has been the home page of the Cowichan Chronicles.
Too, as readers must realize by now, the Chronicles isn’t purely about the Cowichan Valley. Generally, I tell a story about the Cowichan area about one in five-six weeks. This became the pattern over 23 years in the Cowichan Valley Citizen which, for 20 of those years, appeared twice weekly.
Meaning 52 columns per year on the Cowichan Valley, usually of about 1000 words each. (This online version usually offers three times that much content per week.)
Three years ago, when founding this newsletter/magazine, I made the conscious decision to go with Cowichan Chronicles because of its established reader base. You know, if it ain’t broke...
Despite that restrictive name, some Chronicles readers live farther afield, being drawn, I’m happy to say, by the mix of Cowichan Valley and British Columbia wide content.
All of which is to say that I am bowing to my wanting to acknowledge the fact of the Chronicles’ provincial content and to wanting to promote my work accordingly. I do consider myself a B.C. author/historian after all.
Hence, within a matter of weeks, www.CowichanChronicles.com will ever so gently morph into the www.BritishColumbiaChronicles.ca. (Note the .ca for Canada rather than the business-like .com.)
This will mean a change of the home page and the great ToadHollow Photography photo of the Kinsol Trestle will be reconfigured.
Please be assured that nothing else will change for readers!
Anyone keying in the Cowichan Chronicles will automatically be rerouted to www.BritishColumbiaChronicles.ca. In other words, it will be business as usual for Chronicles readers: rich and colourful British Columbia and Cowichan Valley history delivered to your mailboxes every Thursday morning as per usual.
I do welcome input from readers. Anyone who has questions, suggestions or concerns is invited to email me.
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I’m also pleased to report that the City of Nanaimo has approved the request by the Nanaimo Historical Society to erect a signboard memorial to the 21 victims of the Canso air crash on Mount Benson.
It will be situated in the same parking lot as the Visitor Centre on the Nanaimo Expressway.
72 years ago, a converted Canso amphibious bomber like this one, parked at the Nanaimo Airport, slammed into the side of Mount Benson, killing all aboard. —Ambrose photo
This is the ideal location as it offers a perfect view of the southeast slopes of Mount Benson where the Second World War Canso amphibious bomber, which had been converted to carrying passengers by Queen Charlotte Airlines, struck the mountain in the early evening darkness of October 1951.
A memorial to those 21 victims, 13 of whom are interred in a common grave beneath a small, cheap and uninformative headstone in the Nanaimo Cemetery, is long, long overdue.
The NHS is to be commended not only for convincing the City of the justice of a memorial but for offering to pick up part of the cost. Kudos, too, to the City of Nanaimo for joining in this belated acknowledgement of what had been, at the time, the worst aviation disaster in provincial history.
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Further to the ongoing string of mismanagement by the Royal B.C. Museum, CEO Alicia Dubois has resigned after just 16 months in the job.
Anyone who follows the news is aware that the RBC—our RBC—has been tripping over its own feet for about two years now, with one misguided move after another, and I won’t bother listing them here. It, sadly, fits into what has become a pattern by the provincial government of letting our historic and heritage sites/museums struggle for want of adequate funding never mind competent administration.
Oh, the government talks the talk about recognizing and saving our priceless heritage, but when it comes to cutting the cheques and giving real leadership...
Anyway, the farce is by no means over. Readers and fellow taxpayers will have to stay tuned for the next news release by the government—or by one of the many disenchanted historical societies around the province—to see where this tragedy is going.
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From the Chronicles’ graphic artist and reader Patricia, a note re: the recent posts on Nathan and Bob Dougan:
“I absolutely LOVE reading about the Dougan family! So great that you are writing about them.”
One of the Cowichan Valley’s oldest and most historic landmarks, the Dougan farmhouse on the old family homestead, Cobble Hill. —Family photo
“Did I ever tell you that I have been inside the Dougan home? Aileen Dougan is a client of mine and took me inside. It was incredible—even in its sad state of disrepair, broken floor boards and all. Hard to imagine all those kids living in that house...”
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